


Whispers of the Ice

by littlehuntress



Category: Sense8 (TV)
Genre: Female Friendship, Friendship, Gen, Loneliness, Memories, Understanding, Yuletide 2015, connection, life - Freeform, sensates - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 15:32:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5503007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlehuntress/pseuds/littlehuntress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riley and Sun share time and their memories. They know loneliness and loss better than anything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Whispers of the Ice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [recrudescence](https://archiveofourown.org/users/recrudescence/gifts).



The ocean roars fiercely, waves crashing against the rocks with great force and the salty smell drifts around them. Sun inhales deeply, arms outstretched as if receiving the greatest gift nature could ever give her: the freedom of the ocean. 

Riley stands by her side, wrapped up in various layers. She's able to see beyond, and senses the calmness which has taken over Sun, a sensation of harmony within them. 

"My dog," Sun says, "he'd love to run around here." 

"Do you miss him a lot?" 

Sun nods. Being in prison is both a blessing and a curse. She's far away from her brother and father, but she's still trapped. Sun misses the simple things in life, like warm showers and good food. This moment of freedom is irreplaceable. 

"I like it here," Sun says, the smallest of smiles appearing on her lips. 

Riley feels the pull of the sea. The vast greatness of it is a comfort. 

"Me too."

***

Sun's fists are like iron, solid and impenetrable. Her wispy, yet muscular body is like a well tuned machine of strength. Her movements are agile reminiscent of those of a feline, there's a lion inside of her, ready to leap and roar when the right time comes. Riley watches on as Sun trains, completely focused on her movements.

Riley had been thinking of her, of what had become of her life inside a cell. And suddenly there she was, standing up in the middle of the cell, fists ready. 

There's determination visible in her eyes, shinning through when she has a goal set in her mind. Sun never backs down. She goes through life with strong convictions. 

She's a fighter. She fights against all odds, just like Riley wants to. She wants to prevail in the end.

***

"What's it like?"

"Being home?" 

Sun nods, their footsteps competing with the waves against the rocks performing a melody. Heavy fog hides their path but Riley would know her way around these grounds with her eyes closed. The caves are ahead of them, tall effigies of Riley's fears. 

"Better than I thought. My father plays for me like when I was young, there's magic in his fingers, in his music." 

"It must be...wonderful." 

Riley nods. "It is." 

She's still afraid of what she can't really see. She breathes in, the sea filling her lungs. 

If only for this day she's got the company of someone who understands this perpetual loneliness which seeps into your pores, and crawls over you every day despite your best efforts. Sun understands what it's like. 

The caves can and will be forgotten one day, along with the hidden people. Whatever curse or hex might have fallen over her, one day she'll beat it. And the pain inside her chest will be left behind.

***

Riley's music is loud, a delirious _thump thump thump_ which reverberates against the walls and Sun feels a shock of electricity coursing through her body. Despite the beat, there's something almost soft about it. A serene quality in it.

It feels like letting go. 

Riley opens her eyes and looks straight at her, already having felt her presence. She's lying in her old bed, arms folded behind her head. She looks relaxed, she belongs where she is, Sun notes. 

"I like this," Sun mentions, revealing in the feel of home and warmth permeating through every corner of the room. 

"What exactly?" 

"The memories," Sun answers pointing at some photos tapped to the walls and the scattered objects around the room painting a picture for an entire life story. 

Riley has walked over where Sun is standing, her eyes glossing over the images where she's mostly smiling and some of the awkward teenage phase she went through. 

Memories. 

"Sometimes memories are all we have left, the bits and pieces of our story. Nothing lasts forever, things always have an end," Riley says. 

"They do, but it's better to have lived through it all than never have those little moments we'll have inside us forever," Sun responds. 

The frenzy of the music hasn't stopped, but there is something much more bigger than the sound. The power of remembering.

***

Purple and green decorate her face, knuckles red conjuring up the image of a reckless fight for Riley.

Sun is quiet, opening and closing her fist. Her face almost hidden, obscured by the shadows. 

"Are you okay?" Her question is more of an ice breaker than one which needs an answer and Riley is well aware of it. She's filling the silence even though she doesn't need to. Not really. 

"Prison. I had to defend myself, they needed to learn a thing or two," Sun finally says, her eyes staring straight ahead. 

"How is it, I mean the people, how are they?" Riley questions. 

"They're different than I thought. There's good people in here, some I could call friends someday. And then there are those who have gone the other way," Sun reflects. "There's really no good or evil. There's a thin line which blurs both ends and you can't know for sure if you've done what is supposed to be the right thing. Sometimes you just go where life leads you." 

"It's hard to know where you'll end up. I ran away to London, and now I'm here," Riley says, sitting next to Sun in her cell, trapped with her between metal bars and concrete walls. 

"We're here."

***

Riley holds onto Sun as her nightmare goes away, dissipates in the air along with ice and snow and fear.

"Sleep," Sun says, and Riley settles beneath her sheets again. Sun's quiet breathing lulling her back to sleep. 

Sun's tears have stopped falling, but Riley can feel that hole still in the pit of her stomach, and Riley hugs her, a comforting arm across her shoulders. 

"Sleep," she whispers, humming the beginnings of a lullaby.

***

The colors are bright, and if she spins fast enough there's a rainbow swirling before her irises. Sun's hands are stained, red, purple, blue. A look of concentration as she paints something over the walls that already have too many memories and wishes and hope from every single woman around them.

"Can I?" asks Riley. Sun gives her the brush and takes another for herself. 

They get lost in the brushstrokes and voices in the yard. Riley paints the sunset over her house. 

"Here's the freedom we've wanted," Sun says. 

Riley stares at the wall, her hand stopping mid stroke. She realizes the sunset is something that always made her feel safer, more free. 

Sun paints her dog, she paints a little girl. Riley supposes those are things she misses the more and if she were to close her eyes she'd be back to that moment of perfect freedom and happiness she's lived before. Just like Riley does when she does and focuses in the good things. Like music, and home and her father. 

Sun must have those things which set her free even when there's not an easy way out of where she is now. 

But at least they can roam around the caves in Iceland searching for hope instead of curses, they can hear loud music on a quiet afternoon, Riley's fingers moving with the beat, they can sense and feel and talk. 

Then leave a thousand things behind, because for the day they're moving forward. 

They're both survivors.


End file.
